Step By Step TOEIC Bridge Listening 3A

Piano Explorations [8]

Saturdays modular improvisation ,featuring #1222 performance VCO(look mum no computer) / Ornament and crime(after later) / Soundforce dual LFO .

Disolved

“I close my eyes, but I can’t fall asleep, my body dying for the rest while my mind’s wide awake.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

I invite you to listen to my piano improvisation "Sleepless Nights".
Watch the video version on my YouTube channel   https://youtu.be/ytRFTLrq3Hk

The sheet music of some of my compositions can be downloaded from my website https://pianoimprovictor.com/ Some new works are available on  https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/publishers/victor-birkan-sheet-music/3028943?isPLP=1
Find all my music here: https://linktr.ee/victorbirkan

Sleepless Nights - Improvised Piano Piece

"War does not determine who is right, only who is left" - Bertrand Russel.

This 4-movement orchestral work (Symphony No.3, Symphony of War and Peace) was my best teacher of how life and its twists conduct musical sensibilities and creation.

Originally, this Symphony was intended as a spring work in the year 2022. 
Inspired by the lovely stay in South Tyrol, warmed by the sun and energized by the beautiful surroundings, the first movement begins with joyful brass fanfares.

Sadly, already in the making of the first bars, the Russian War has broken out. Therefore the first movement is dominated by fear and anguish and stormy outbursts, which rebel again and again and collapse repeatedly right after.

The English Horn has a special role in this symphony. This time it symbolizes not romantic love, but the longing for peace and harmony.
Several times it joins the strings in a lovely hymn of praise to the pureness of life.

The second movement mourns the loss caused by the outbreak of war: the immense loss of confidence, security, and all the people expelled, silenced, or crushed by war.
The English Horn blows several times for hope, and the music always turns from minor to major as a result. The lonely violin sings its mournful tune to life.
All this is silenced in the finale. All is in despair.

The third movement ventures (in vain) into lightness. Set in a relaxed 3/4 time, there are several touches of dance and celebration, but they never really flow due to repeated changes in the tempo and the harmony.
The movement ends, as the previous movement does, in melancholy. The supposed Waltz dissipates into lamenting the lost joy of life.

The fourth movement contrasts war and peace. Therefore, the music alternates several times between absolute tranquility and relaxation and to the eruption of violent musical phrases.
After a massive opening and a extended silent sequence, the war battles take over - one by one - all the instruments. The music erupts literally into chaos. Killing any harmony and beauty. 
What remains is an abandoned set of deep string instruments.
After a reprise of the 4th movement opening, the flute sings a lonely peace melody. (I re-used this part in my Ode to Mother's Love: Your Love Beneath my Wings)
Gradually the other instruments join in, the woodwind, the strings, and finally the brass and the percussion. Together they sing the lovely melody of peace.
Instead of ending this thoughtful Symphony with a loud fanfare, the strings quietly conclude with restrained modesty, intoning the peace motif one last time, reminiscent that peace will prevail. 

Thank you for listening !

Symphony of War and Peace - IV. War and Peace

Ambient Bite 575

Improvisations and experimental materials recorded live in Berlin 2023

For Other Reasons

Pôchimà

My first attempt to compose a tonal piece was 'North sea for Viola,' and I kept in mind the tradition of the Second Viennese School and what followed . The work should be meta-avant-garde. This recording is the world premiere performance by Diego Naser in 2015 at the Maria-Magdalenen-Kirche in Marne.

North sea for viola

Short piano theme

pict free wallpaper

A bit of melancholy just before the end of the year. I like it so much, even though I'm basically a cheerful person :-) . Just as I like to say Dr Jekyl and Mr. Hide. Mostly the less positive events and news evoke emotions in us. It will sound like a cliché, but as a person gets older, he has already experienced more different events and therefore often thinks about the situation in the world, disputes, wars, etc. And although we are one planet in the Universe, one blue ball, one animal species, so animals often treat each other better than humans. But that's just the way it is, I can only state it. End of philosophizing, have a wonderful new year everyone, as you wish. We will "hear" each other again next year. I look forward to . 

Milan

Step By Step TOEIC Bridge Listening 3A - 1 - Track 12

Compass Publishing

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